Days 123 - 125 Wanaka to Queenstown
- john51648
- Mar 15, 2021
- 5 min read
Day 123 - 11 March
Wanaka to Highland Creek Hut (30km)
This section is the Motutapu Track that joins Wanaka to Arrowtown. There is a mountain bike and running race through there annually but alas they use the farm track through then valley bottom, whereas the TA runs up and over the hills and includes numerous long steep ascents and descents.
Steph’s dad, Dave, has joined us again for this section having escaped Auckland after their most recent lock-down and done the Kepler over the last couple of days.
Steph and I set off from Wanaka early for the walk around the lakefront to Gledhu Bay where the trail leaves the lake and heads into the backcountry.
The first challenge however www was gettin g out of Wanaka. It is A&P show this coming weekend and the bottom of the town has been fences off for the show. In attempting to get to the lakefront we scaled one of the security fences and wandered through the show grounds. Getting in was the easy part, getting out proved to be a bit more challenging, after looking at a few of the fences and decided they were either too high or too flimsy to climb we finally found a place where the show backed onto some private houses and were able to get through to them and then quietly head down their driveway to the lakefront.
Once on the lakefront the walk was about 18km on a well formed path and really beautiful with the lake on our right.
Arriving at the trail head Kelly was there in the motor home seeing Brian and Guy off. We had an enjoyable half hour or so sitting in the motorhome chatting to her while waiting for Dave to arrive with his friends from Wanaka.
The walk up to the first hut of this section, Fern Burn, was mostly in the bush and while a constant uphill was really enjoyable. Passing Brian and Guy on the way, we stopped for a late lunch before heading on to Highland Creek Hut.
After Fern Burn was the first steep climb of this section, about two Hakas (600m) followed by an equally steep descent to the hut.
The huts on this trail are all relatively new so quite comfortable and general rodent free which is nice. There was however one, or perhaps more possum outside overnight which did manage to make enough noise to even wake me.
Day 124 - 12 March
Highland Creek Hut to Macetown (21km)
Now this is going to be big day. Again the lure of real food in Arrowtown on Saturday morning has spurred me on and the intention is to get to Macetown, a deserted mining village, today. While only 21km it does entail 5.5 Hakas of ascent and a little more of descent and finishes with walking down the Arrow River for about 6km.
Getting away from Highland Creek Hut the morning consisted of two hills each pretty steep and each followed by an equally steep descent in to the valley. From the tops you had fabulous view that included the farm track that is used for the marathon and bike races, boy did that look easy compared to where we were.
As we dropped in towards Roses hut for lunch there was a large flock of merino sheep seemingly moving themselves between paddocks. Not a dog or farmer in sight but they sheep seemed on a mission to move from the tussock hillside to literally greener pastures on the flat.
Lunch at Roses hut, the usual wrap with cheese and jalapeños but for this section I’m adding chorizo, so the wraps are getting increasingly fancy as I head south.
After lunch the trail again climbs, this time for a little over 600m (2 Hakas) before reaching Roses Saddle from which it descends to the river valley below.
At one stage I looked skyward, god knows why as generally I look at my feet when trudging uphill, and a parasailer was flying over the ridge above us. Not sure where he came from or went to as we are still quite a long way from any logical launch or landing point for these guys.
Upon reaching the Arrow River there are two possible routes to Macetown. The flood, or high water, route takes to the hills beside the river and climbs up and down staying on the eastern side of the river. The low water route follows the river, large portions actually wading downstream in the river.
Deciding the river was low (I’m not sure by what standard we reached this decision but it felt like it should be low as we have had little rain over the previous few days) we decided to follow the river. This was actually a great route, interesting crossing and wading in the river and not overly cold. I did have one issue, being my shoes now provide no barrier to rocks entering through the sides so I did have fair few rocks and a lot of grit under my feet.
Reaching Macetown we climbed from the river to the derelict town itself only to realise there was no water there unless you counted a couple of muddy puddles. So after pitching tents it was necessary to go back down to the river and get water for washing and eating. Not a big deal but annoying after such a long day.
As he evening wore on the little camping area we’d set our tents in slowly filled with three NOBOs and one other SOBO arriving, so quite a TA village.
Day 125 March 13th
Macetown to Queenstown (31km today with 10km on my layday tomorrow)
The lure of real food again had me out of my tent and ready to go pretty much before dawn. Steph and Dave were likewise up and ready to go early. It is interesting how quickly the mornings are getting darker down here. Dawn is now about 7.00am, which makes the mornings that much harder especially when tenting.
The other hikers were still all snug in their tents when the three of us headed of towards the bakery at Arrowtown and that famous pie for morning tea.
The trail today essentially followed the Arrow River on an increasingly improving 4wd track. It did cross the river innumerable times, which in the cold of the early morning together with the ongoing issue of rock ingress into my shoes was character building!
We arrived in Arrowtown after about three hours and made our way straight to the bakery where a pie, hot cross bun and coffee were enjoyed by us all.
Steph and Dave then hitched into Queenstown (Dave’s first hitchhiking experience of the last thirty or so years!) and I walked as far as the Lake Hays subdivision (about 15km). My plan being to hitchhike back out there tomorrow to finish the section but wanting to get into Queenstown in time to watch the Americas Cup (priorities!!).
Queenstown seemed, to me, pretty busy but the locals tell me its dead. There was a Crowded House concert on here tonight which had added to the numbers this weekend.
I’m planning on having a couple of days here, again just to get the timing for my arrival in Bluff coinciding with Marie. Also, it’s forecast to rain heavily on Monday so I figure with the time up my sleeve I may as well wait that out and head south early Tuesday.
Up and down. Up and down. Up and Down. How do you and your knees keep going John?